An Assistance Infrastructure to Inform Agents for Decision Support in open MAS
Publication Type:
Conference PaperSource:
ITMAS 2012: International Workshop on Infrastructures and Tools for Multiagent Systems, Valencia, Spain, p.93-106 (2012)Keywords:
decision support; Assistance Infrastructures; Assistance servicesAbstract:
Organisations are an effective mechanism to define the coordination model that structure agent interactions in Open MAS. Execution infrastructures mediate agents interactions while enforcing the rules imposed by the organisation. Although infrastructures usually provide open specifications to agents, understanding this specification and participating in the organisation could result a difficult task to agents, specially when the system is hybrid (i.e participants can be both human and software agents) and its specification becomes more and more complex. In this paper we further formalise a two layered Assistance Infrastructure in order to enable and evaluate different Assistance Services to agents in MAS. We also formalise the Information Service and evaluate it using the case study of a water market. Experiments results show that the information service increases agents satisfaction and helps the system meets its organisational goals. In addition, different information services may support individual agents in their decision processes when they follow alternative strategies.
The Role of MAS as a Decision Support Tool in a Water-Rights Market
Publication Type:
Book ChapterSource:
Advanced Agent Technology, Springer, Volume 7068, Number 7068, Berlin / Heidelberg, p.35-49 (2012)ISBN:
978-3-642-27215-8URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27216-5_4Keywords:
electronic institutions; simulation tools; decision support; multiagent systemsAbstract:
Water is an essential and scarce resource. This motivates the development of technologies to make water use more efficient. One such proposal has been to deploy institutional frameworks, (referred to as water banks) where water rights may be exchanged more freely and thus foster better water use. Needless to say that good water management is a complex endeavor and the decision to enable a water bank is but one of many actions that policy-makers may take. However, having a water bank is a specially useful device. Once a water bank is enabled, policy-makers may regulate how trading is made and by so doing, have a direct influence on demand and with that foster a good use of water. In this paper, we present a decision-support environment constructed around a water-rights market. It is designed so that policy-makers may explore the interplay between i) market regulations, ii) trader profiles and market composition, and iii) the aggregated outcomes of trading under those set conditions. Our environment is designed as a multi-agent system that implements market regulations and is enabled with tools to specify performance indicators, to spawn agent populations and allow humans as well as software agents to participate in simulations of virtual trading.
Notes:
springerlink:10.1007/978-3-642-27216-5_4
